Patti LuPone quits Actors' Equity: 'They don't know who I am'
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Patti LuPone called Actors' Equity the "worst union" in a new interview. Actors' Equity has not responded publicly to her comments. Credit: Patrick McMullan / Sean Zanni
Northport-raised stage legend Patti LuPone has quit the union representing theater actors and stage managers, criticizing the organization as unsupportive of performers.
"Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about," tweeted the three-time Tony Award winner, 73, referencing a recent incident in which a "Hadestown" star mistakenly castigated an audience member for having a recording device, which was in fact a closed-captioning tool for the hard of hearing. News accounts compared it with LuPone on multiple occasions having criticized audience members for using their phones during performances.
"Gave up my [Actors'] Equity card; no longer part of that circus," her tweet continued. "Figure it out."
LuPone, whose most recent Tony came this year for her featured role in the December to July revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Company," went on to tell People magazine Monday that the Actors' Equity Association was the "worst union," saying, "They accepted my resignation and told me that if I ever wanted to rejoin, I'd have to be approved."
She added, "And it's the perfect reason I withdrew from Equity. Fifty years to this year … I've been a card-carrying member of Equity, and they don't know who I am, basically. They just said, 'Fine, but if you want to rejoin, we're going to have to approve you.' "
In a statement to Newsday via her representative, LuPone said, "When the run of ‘Company’ ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be onstage for a very long time. And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity.”
Actors' Equity has not responded publicly.
LuPone, who additionally has had a long career in film and TV, next appears in the Netflix film "The School for Good and Evil," premiering Wednesday, and in the new season of FX's "American Horror Story" the same day.
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